New data suggest that molecular communication between the plant sexes–specifically the pollen of males and pistils of females–is more complicated than originally thought. Plants, like animals, avoid inbreeding to maximize genetic diversity and the associated chances for survival. Image: Nicolle Rager Fuller, National Science Foundation

Researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute have developed a tabletop accelerator that produces nuclear fusion at room temperature, providing confirmation of an earlier experiment conducted at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), while offering substantial improvements over the original design. [press release]

An indigenous group called the MundurukÃº, who live in isolated villages in several Brazilian states in the Amazon jungles, have no words in their language for square, rectangle, triangle or any other geometric shape except circles. . .Yet, researchers have discovered, they appear to understand many principles of geometry as well as American children do, and in some cases almost as well as American adults. An article describing the findings appears in the Jan. 20 issue of Science. [NY Times article]

Despite the prevailing belief that adult brain cells don’t grow, a researcher at the Picower Institute for Learning and Memory reports in the Dec. 27 issue of Public Library of Science (PLoS) Biology that structural remodeling of neurons does in fact occur in mature brains. . . In 3-D time-lapse images, the brain cells look like plants sprouting together. Some push out tentative tendrils that grow around, or retract from contact with, neighboring cells. Dendrite tips that look like the thinnest twigs grow longer. [press release]

During the past 18 months, radiologists in Sweden have performed more than 100 virtual autopsies on murder victims, according to Anders Ynnerman, a professor in the Department of Science and Technology at LinkÃ¶pings University, who also works at the Center for Medical Image Science and Visualization (CMIV) in LinkÃ¶ping. Ynnerman says evidence from virtual autopsies has been used to clarify the cause of death in several criminal trials in Sweden.

According to Richard Carrigan, a particle physicist at the US Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory in Illinois, aliens could use the widespread [email protected] network the unleash viruses. But then again, if they wanted to, they’ve probably already done so, or maybe they’re living amongst us, or maybe they’re gentle beings and will send us the answer to life, the Universe, and everything.